The first time I heard about PBP was in 2011, when my second innings into long distance running was just getting started….
I had always been fascinated by endurance sports. The first time I witnessed such an endurance event, was the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, which was won by the Portuguese athlete Carlos Lopez. Carlos was a legend of his time. As a studious boy, sports was a distant dream during school and college days. Aside from going to a gym for about six months during the third year in my college, there wasn't much sports in my life (except for gully cricket).
In 1999, as I was settling down with my job in Atlanta, I started running to maintain my weight. Lapping the half-a-mile of roads within my community, armed with just a stopwatch, I used to be known as the guy who was running all the time. Except for the monthly edition of Runners World, that provided titbits on running, most of my training was self-learnt. Side-stitches, shin pain, and a plethora of problems, were solved only by resting and a bit of trial-and-error. I moved to Boston the next year, and thanks to the running culture around, I had a colleague in office, who had completed a marathon the previous year. I registered for the half-marathon event in BayState Marathon in 2000 and started training for it. That being the first event, the plan was to train for a marathon and go with the feel. The training went great, and I upgraded to the marathon event on the penultimate day and finished it in four and a half-hours. Just about a decent time for a first-time marathoner. I would eventually complete the same event in 2001 in four hours before shifting base to Bangalore.
The running culture in Bangalore was in its nascency, and a two-time marathon finisher was already a rock-star. Life had its own priorities and running took a back seat. Over the next few years, I picked and chose any event that came across. Finishing was the only goal. We just ran for the joy of running. It was all just sporadic. Long periods of lull followed by training for events. The weekend run organized by RunnersForLife was a great opportunity to socialize.
On and Off until 2010, when a bout of illnesses struck me. I fell ill for three times in a matter of three months. A couple of running friends were starting a coaching venture, and I was naturally pulled in and I got enrolled with coach Kothandapani Sir, loving referred to as Pani Sir.
While 2011 was a cautious entry into running, the next year was super-sized. In 2012, I practically ran a marathon distance every month for ten months. And during this time, finished a 100-km Bangalore Ultra with a third-place finish. While the shorter events carried a time-pressure, the longer events were fully devoid it. The focus was completely on the finish and avoiding a DNF. While I ran a decent pace, the relief from chasing speed turned it into a meditative one. The next few years were punctuated with carefully calibrated Ultra training mixed with speed training for shorter races. The focus on Ultras never allowed me to get faster, and I wasn't bothered about it as long as I got my fair share of solo time on the run. The journey through those years, also helped me learn and feel my body. Towards 2016, I started training for fat-burn. Slowly I graduated to two-hour runs on empty stomach. Running mellowed down as my daughter started school in 2016, and took a back seat. As I joined Qualcomm in 2017, work commitments increased and running became impractical.
The road to randonneuring
Being an endurance athlete, it wasn’t a difficult task to get into long distance cycling. While running required 700 calories an hour, the cycling efforts required just 450 calories an hour. While the runner in me was well trained, my initial attempts didn’t go well. The first factor was sleep, and the second was that I had an aggressive race-geometry bike. As a runner training five-six days a week, I lived on five hours of sleep, and caught up on weekends. Long distance riding only left me with more sleep deficits. I still had a 200 BRM finish from 2012 in the Huliyurdurga route.
While I gradually adapted to my bike, the first lucky break came when I rode ten straight days of 50km during the Dussehra vacation in 2018. One thing lead to the other, and I mustered up enough courage to register for the Roller Coaster 200K in March 2019. It wasn't an easy one to ride through the afternoon heat, but I held up to complete it well. Riding on a MTB, my ride methods were unconventional. I rode on unpadded shorts and on hawai chappals.
When the Toughest SR series came along, I completed the series. I struggled through each of the ride and learnt different aspects. Sleep management in 300 BRM, Managing saddle soreness in 400 BRM, and the Coorg 600km was a different ball game altogether. I rode an MTB without a rain jacket and on chappals to mitigate the rains.
As a treat for completing the Toughest Series, I decided to gift myself a bike. After several attempts to find a right-sized steel bike, I settled on my Miyata. (I had been having this bike for many years, but the bike was one-size large for me). Murali from cyclestation helped to fit the bike by making several adjustments. It took almost half-a-day as we made several adjustments on the bike, one by one: saddle height, stem hight, saddle angle, saddle offset, etc.
The next day, I took the bike on my daily favorite Chikkatirupathi route. I was completely blown away. 31 of the 33 segments were either the fastest or the second fastest. I knew this was magic. All my earlier attempts on this bike was on my Giant Revel MTB. This became my preferred bike for long rides in 2021 & 2022.
The road to PBP
Chalukya 1200 in Sep 2021 gave me good confidence to attempt LRMs. However 2022 had a dull start. I trained quite a lot and was fully prepared for GOH. However, a Covid infection two weeks before big date made me pull back from the event. I had to pull out of Jog 1000 because of a medical event in my family. I was going great guns in Twin Hills 600 until a fellow rider met with an accident, and we called off the ride at 250kms. I pulled out of Coorg 1000 after the first CP (108 kms), as I wasn't feeling and suspected I had an illness. With so many setbacks, I was yet to complete an SR in late August. In terms of weather, 2022 was an exceptional year with rains ruling the roost all through the year.
When Kittur 1000 BRM opened up, I was very much concerned about the rains. The event was a do-or-die for me to qualify for PBP. During this ride I got very good exposure on riding with the rain. While many things didn't work, Kittur 1000 was a finish to cherish, but it helped me qualify for PBP.
With the focus on PBP, I put in good amount of training, covering both elevation and endurance. I finished BGB and Coorg 1000, both in good time, and in great shape. BGB was a good simulation for PBP, with stiffer elevation and a climate profile to match. The Coorg ride was an absolute killer with us having to spend all the days in very hot weather. The training for the year went blazing till then. Unfortunately for me, some family events took precedence, and I also decide to pursue a different career option. This greatly reduced my training focus, and the amount of time spent of training. While I was putting in excess of 1500+ kms during the first few months, the three months leading to PBP was nearly half of that mileage. Training became severely constrained because of my added morning commute. 
Lead Up to PBP
With severely constrained training, I used the BRMs that came along in the Toughest SR Series. This is a SR series consisting of four BRMs (200, 300, 400 & 600) with a tough elevation profile. I completed Anchetty (200K) and Hogenakkal (300K) rides. My lack of training was beginning to show up. I had to miss the 400K and 600K events because of family and work commitments. The Centenary 400K provided a good opportunity to test my fitness levels. I executed my plan to ride CP to CP, until sleep took over late in the night. It was a very satisfying finish in 18 hours. This gave me good confidence for PBP.
I enrolled with a cycling coach, Noel Brett of Siliguri. I had met him during my trip to Bhutan. Though the engagement was quite late in the lead up to PBP, he provided me with a good routine to keep myself within good shape and flexibility given my constrained schedule. Our engagement is still in its early stages for us to understand each other and fine tune our training. While Noel was focussing on long term fitness, my ramp up needs were immediate. Three weeks to the event, we realigned the training to improve cadence (with no focus on speed). The training for the last month helped me recover some of my base strength and endurance, if not get me into the shape I was in four months ago.
The first days in Paris
I planned to spend a few days in Paris for sightseeing before the event, and arrived three days prior to the BR team. I was put up in a hotel in Central Paris with Vibhav Shinde. Vibhav is a strong rider originally from Nagpur, working in Bangalore. He is a hardcore keto-athlete to the tune of skipping carbs in his daily diet. While, I am fat-adapted and can do long workouts on empty stomach, he was much farther in that curve. We had lots of interesting discussions about how to the ride the event.
We spent the first few days going around Paris and getting accustomed to the roads. Costs were kept to minimal, as we covered all ground around the city on bicycle, and the only expense was food. Being in Central Paris, we experimented on foods available at grocery stores and got our palates familiarized. By the time, the rest of the team arrived, we were already familiar with the roads, navigation and also more attuned to the time-zone.
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| Startpoint of the first edition of PBP |
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| With Tim and Geoff form UK |
After the BR team arrived, the days became hectic with one or the other engagement planned every day, whether it was a recce ride to Rambouillet or the photoshoot ride to Paris. The days grew busier as it went by, with the race packet collection on August 19th. Long discussions were held on strategizing the ride, from what to be carried on the ride to where do we sleep. With so many riders around, it was a festival atmosphere at the hotel. All of us got our bikes ready on the night preceding the event. Kits were made separately: what goes on the jersey, bike, and drop bags and so on.
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| with Abhishek in Paris |
Plan for the Big Ride
Ride Strategy
A month prior to the event, a kind soul made a Excel sheet for detailed planning and made it public. The excel sheet contained segment-wise CP times, elevations profiles and quite detailed. I also made a detailed plan with the spreadsheet, but held my reservations about the practicality of following the plan. I missed taking this plan when I packed up for my flight. As I was thoroughly studying the route, the distance to all controls were etched in the back of my mind. I could remember them even when I was asleep. Before we left for the start, I made a small sheet that contained the information that I didn't remember. Just the distance of service points and controls on the return. No time targets. CP-end times were printed on the brevet card supplied by the organizers, and I felt that was sufficient.
I made a rough plan that looked like:
- Loudeac (drop-bag point) 435 kms in 24 hours
- Brest (mid-way point) 609 kms in 36 hours
- Loudeac (drop-bag point 2nd access) 782 kms by Day 3 evening (no specific time)
- Brest (finish point) in 90 hours for homologation
The plan was to access drop-bags 435kms and 782 kms. Two packs were made with ride kit (jersey, shorts & gloves), and a separate packet was made for all the electronics.
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| Route on the back of the official jersey |
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| My own cue-sheet with estimated cut-off times |
Food strategy
Except for the first 200kms, the route had official food service points every 80 kms till the mid-way point. The second half had more frequent food service points. Eighty kms with one food stop was easily achievable with my pace. To be on the safer side, I carried two snicker bars for every 400km leg, that was supposed to be used as a contingency in the event I run out of energy between the CPs.
The plan for the first 200kms was very different. The plan was to ride non-stop as much as possible. For this, I wanted to carry packed food that will stay fresh for atleast eight hours. I packed up a chicken taco from a shop 100-metres from the Rambouillet station, before we arrived at the venue.
I also packed dry-fruit obbattu (something like sweet parathas). Three per pack for each of the segments.
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| Assortment of Pastries in Versailles |
Sleep Strategy
I always wonder why people want to skip sleep on the first and second days for a four-day event. It defies all logic. If you end up tired on the second day, you're going to be more tired on the third and fourth days. A lot of riders follow this plan and it is very dangerous from a health perspective.
With the nights being cold, I had reservations of sleeping outdoors. I carried a small pocket-size emergency blanket in case I need to sleep outdoors. The plan was to sleep whenever it hits. I was expecting that the first will be of no sleep because of the adrenaline rush.
Aside from this, I wanted to stay away from any food intake during the night hours (midnight till day-break 7am). This allowed enough rest for the digestive system. The plan was to survive only on water with electrolytes for these six to seven hours. I had already practiced this in the Coorg 1000 event and it worked for me. The colder weather in Paris also helped this strategy.
The other big plan was to arrive at the the venue early and catch a couple of hours of sleep. I brought up this idea on an earlier discussion with Tim, a British rider. He accepted the merits of the idea, but had tried it earlier in the previous PBP. Sleep is downright impossible with the disturbance from the other riders, and second, due to the adrenaline rush pre-event.
Energy Strategy
From my earlier ultrarunning experiences, I had developed the ability to expend 700-750 calories an hour. 400 of these will come from bodily fat. To enable the fat burn, I needed to keep myself in a certain aerobic zone (under 140bpm).
As for cycling, the average hourly expenditure was to the tune of 450-500 calories. This could be easily derived from the regular meals. No food in the night meant that these would completely from body fat for a few hours. It was manageable, as along as I stayed under 120bpm during these night hours.
(I wear a Fenix 5S watch that I will occasionally tap into to check HRM. The wrist-based HRM was less accurate, but it served the purpose. The advantage is that the watch had a runtime of 7 days and I didn’t need to worry about charging the watch again.)
Before The Big Ride
Morning Blues
Having given the drop bags the previous day, it was a long wait to the event start. Though fully awake, we stayed in the bed to catch more rest in anticipation of the long night ahead. I went over one final check on the bike, and lubed up the chains properly. Our room was the designated storage for others to keep their bags. So, we got ready and packed our bags for others to come in. As time was moving very slowly at the hotel, we hit the road at 12:30pm, almost five hours before the start. The railway station was in carnival mode, filled with cyclists. In hindsight, it was good that we started earlier.
In the ensuing commotion to get on to the bike, me and Abhishek got separated and boarded different coaches. Getting out of the station at Rambouillet was smoother. On exiting the station, I left a message for Abhishek that I am off to collect a food packet for the evening. I headed straight to O'Taco that 100m from the railway station. When I ordered an XL chicken taco, I didn’t realize the size. The taco was close to three full meals and weighed almost a kilo. While I was happy that it will cover me for the rest of the day, I was also apprehensive about the weight on the back. (Heavy weight on the back slows you down on the saddle). Luckily I caught hold of Murali Iyer, who was here to pick up his lunch as well.
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| Heading to the start point |
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| The XL taco was really three meals |
Carnival at the Venue
With nearly 7000 cyclists, there was a large carnival at the venue. As we arrived, we made it a point to head straight to the food hall and finish our lunch. They served Turkey meat, which I avoided to be on the safer side. After finishing the meal, we headed straight for the lawns. At 3:00pm, we already saw the riders from the A-group (start time:4:00pm) lined up at the start. As I kept walking towards the castle, I saw the riders for the B-group also being paraded. I slowely figured out the hold-out area for the G-group and found a shaded spot to settle in. With a couple of hours to go for the start, I was trying to catch a brief-shuteye. Murali stayed with me.
With all the commotion around, I could get sleep. Thirty minutes later, I got up and started chatting with the riders who had gathered. I met Subu Narayan, from Chennai, on his Serotta Titanium. There were many others from BR: Nakul, Ganesh & Naveen. There was also a few from Tinteniac Cycling Club causing commotion. Everytime, I came across them, I would shout Tinteniac and they will shout back. Tinteniac is a control at the the 352km point.
The group started to move at 4:30pm, a full-hour before the designated start time. We went through the mandatory bike checks. Being mid-afternoon, the temperature was quite hot, and I kept sipping into the water bottle. The hour passed quite fast, and we were at the start line 15 minutes before the designated start.
In the afternoon heat, I had finished 80% of one sipper before the start. I started getting skeptical about the heat. Given a chance, I would have gone back and filled up the water bottle. But here we're at the start, and its nigh impossible. Not everyone is as lucky as Nakul, who had his wife Raksha at the start-point, was able to get his sippers topped off.
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| Can you spot Nick Dehaan? A-group waiting to flagged |
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| Velomobiles on the F holdout |
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| Rider from Tinteniac |
The Start
At 5:30pm, the wheels started rolling. I cautiously rode through the initial gravel stretch and settled onto my own pace. The group was led by motorists who lead a peloton at a much faster pace. I settled into the back of the pack, not to overexert myself, and at the same time, maintaining a reasonable pace. With the legs being fresh, the first few rolling hills flew past. There were a lot of familiar faces from the start line: pleasantries and wishes were exchanged as and when we crossed each other. At around the twenty km mark, something slipped out of my bike and I had to make a brief stop to retrieve it back. In the two minute gap, a hundred cyclists must have passed. A few of them enquiring if everything is fine with me. At around twenty-four kms, a big peloton crossed. A quick peek made me realize that they were from the H group that started fifteen minutes after me. Back of the head calculation put their speed at 30kmph. I was bewildered.
A minute after the start, I started the timer on my Garmin 1030. A few minutes later, I would realize that the display configuration had been changed, and it wouldn't display the kms covered. I had to rely on the lap notifications that occurred every 5miles or 8kms. I didn’t want to spend time tinkering with the Garmin, and decided to keep track of the lap notifications that came every 8kms. For a 40km distance, I had to count five lap notifications. (I wouldn't fix this until 750 kms when I finally reconfigured the display).
A few minutes later, I heard a familiar voice. "Thala….". I turned back to see Natesh Muthanna. "You are leading a big peloton", he exclaimed. I turned back and saw atleast twenty riders. He mentioned that the peloton was to the tune of 70-80 riders. For a brief moment, I felt proud. "Are you not going to get out of the peloton?" He queried. "Me. No way! Keep watching. Soon, the peloton will cross and go ahead of me". The ride should have lasted another three to four kms. The peloton went ahead of me. Me, being a solo rider, I am used to group riding, and didn't have the required skills.
With the day being so hot, I was close to running out of water. At 45kms, there was an old couple distributing water from their car. "Agua… Agua…" I was literally begging. The old couple was kind enough both my sippers.
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| Old couple handing out water on a hot day |
Warmin' Up
Danny, a doctor from Pondy, joined me in this stretch, and we were chatting about our experience in the Kolli Hills BRM. He stopped at a commune food stall at the 65th km. Having sped past and not wanting to go back, I continued with the idea of stopping at the next available food stop. The one kg Taco in the back was heavy enough to carry. At 87 kms, there was water stall setup by the commune in Senonches. Four hours into the ride, and six hours from the previous meal, I figured it would be an ideal stop. There were several villagers on the road offering snacks and water.
Stopping the bike, I requested if there is a bathroom. An elderly gentleman led me to a closed office in the first floor. I opened up the Taco packet and tried to finish a third. It was HUGEEE. I offered a small portion to Wilson who stopped after seeing me stop. Wanting to thank the volunteers, I got one of the postcards addressed and signed by them. I also offered one of the Dryfruit Obbattu I was carrying. They liked it very much. The reduction in weight offered me a little bit of relief on the back. 32kms to Mortagne, I said to myself, before I started. (Four lap notifications was the mental note).
Half-past-nine and it wasn’t cooling down yet. I picked up pace and rode steady towards Mortagne. This was a designated food-stop and no stamping was required. The atmosphere was that of a carnival. I heard Monish and a couple of others to stop. I was tempted to stop. With the Taco in the backpack, I paced up and exited the control area. An hour in, I found a quite corner on the street, and had my second filling. This was early for a second meal. But I wanted to have a second portion and shut it off for the night. No more meals for the rest of the night until day break.
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| First stop at Senonches |
The Road to Fougeres
Villaines-la-Juhel was the next control. This control was peculiar. We had to ride through a street in the town entering from one side and exiting the other side. This is the only control where we didn’t have to ride half-a-km into the control area. I quickly parked my bike and was delighted to see a few BR riders. First, it was Milan Rao, a young fellow attempting PBP. Then it was Prasad & Swamy. And there was Raghu, trying to fix a puncture a km before the control. This stop was quick, and the time utilized was only for the stamping and filling up water. It provided great relief with the first stamping done in real quick time.
Sleep for the night was planned whenever it hits me. As I exited Villaines, I found a family (father and two sons) serving coffee. Got a cup of espresso with suc (sugar). When I requested for a second cup, the boy politely refused that they want to keep it for other riders. A little embarrassed, I thanked the family and carried on. This being at 3am in the night, kept me awake for the next few hours until day-break. The routine followed, and I made a mental note of ten lap alerts to the next control Fougeres.
The French country side was a pleasure to ride in the night. I reached Fougeres at 8:04 in the morning. 293kms covered in fourteen and a half hours. A quick calculation and it was a five hour buffer. I had to ride past the restaurant to the school building. I got my brevet card stamped and was looking for drinking water. One of the volunteers directed me to the bathroom. I filled one of the sippers and left from there. I quickly acknowledge Barry who was waiting in line to use the loo. For some reason, it left an unpleasant experience, and I used the water only from the other sipper. I refilled the one with water from the toilet at the next available opportunity. Though, I had known about this fact, something didn’t go well psychologically then.
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| A supporting family en route |
Fougeres to Loudeac
Exiting the control, I found a nice park bench at a vantage point, and started to much on the next Dry fruit Obbattu. The Taco had gone stale, and had to discard it. Very many riders passed through the point, and I was perched on a vantage point in bindass mode enjoying the dry-fruit Obbattu. The next stretch to Tinteniac had the feel of a highway, but with very less traffic. The morning weather was pleasant, and I reached at 11:20. With 353 kms done in 18 hours, just a tad below 20 average, I was quite happy with the proceedings so far. I decided to treat myself to a 10-minute break.
The next point, Quediac as a food-service point and was 25kms away. Wary about the crowd, I decided to take a smallish break on the road-side. As I munched up on the last of the dry-fruit Obbattu, I noticed a Carrefour on the opposite side of the road. While I wasted sometime to the get to the entrance, picked up a sandwich and icecream from the store. A few European riders and a couple of Indians joined in. And to my luck, there was a public washroom, without the queues of course.
As I started riding, I saw Lijo riding ahead. He was quite hungry and wanted to stop at Quediac. I entered Quediac to top-up my water bottles, and noticed the empty queues at the lunch counter. I picked up some pasta and a pastry to go with it. After quickly finishing it up, bid goodbye to Lijo and started towards Loudeac.
Just before entering Loudeac, I stopped at a small family home serving snacks. And noticed that they were enjoying wine. One joke led to the other, all in sign-language, and I ended with a nice glass of wine. Who can say no to a glass of French wine. <pic>
The road to Loudeac was gentle rolling, but the afternoon heat was picking up. I had eyes set on reaching before 24 hours. I had some cushion. The road led us through some good country-side terrain. The hills didn’t bother me, despite the afternoon heat, thanks to the cushion. I reached Loudeac exactly at 5:10, twenty minutes ahead of my target.
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| Lunch at Quediac |
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| Lunch enroute at a village carnival |
Break at Loudeac
After getting the brevet card stamped, I started looking for the dropbag point. I went around a couple of times, until I got a cue from the volunteer that we need to get down to the lower level using the stairs. I was lucky to find fellow Brers here. Raghu was busy arranging his bike, and Naveen's motor was in full flow. Ganesh was haplessly waiting for Naveen to wake up. Raghu seemed to be in his own zone and didn’t want to get disturbed.
Got myself refreshed with a cool shower, and a quick snack from the Gojju Avalakki packet (courtesy Prasad). The afternoon sun was in full-flow, and this helped me get my base layer washed and dried completely. Changed into the spare kit I had in the drop bag. Double base-layer underneath the jersey, and a skin-tight pants over the bib-shorts, was the gear for the cold-weather in the night. I had full-finger gloves in the saddle bag in case it gets too cold.
The 10000mah powerbank I had used for the night still had two points and I thought of not replacing it. (This was a stupid mistake, that I will realize later).
With the bike at a different level, it took a great deal of time, before I could get started. I wish I was a little more organized. Two hours had passed, and finally I started rolling out 7:20pm. With the cold night in mind, I had packed myself in double layer clothing. Athletic tights over the bib-shorts, and double-base layers.
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| A toast to PBP |
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| Velomobile en route |
Road to Carhaix (515 kms)
Carhaix was just an intermediate CP before I get to the mid-way point. Goals for the next stretch were clear in my mind. First, Reach Brest by 6:00am the next day (165 kms in 11 hours). Second, catch an hour or two of sleep. This was important after having skipped sleep on the first day. With this in mind, I had avoided caffeine for the whole day. The plan was to catch the first wave of sleep whenever it hit me.
As soon as I got on the road, I saw Prasad and Swamy along the course. This gave me the affirmation that I was on track with respect to time. At around 9:30pm, an hour before nightfall, I found a good patch of lawn by the side of the road. Arms and legs spread wide apart, I got into Shavasana pose (close to Vitruvian man) to catch some shuteye. Thanks to the tiredness, within no time, I was asleep, and like magic, I woke up 45 minutes later.
A short while later, volunteers on the road were directing us to the secret-control at Canihuel. There were two secret controls on the entire route, and missing the secret control would lead to disqualification.
A little-while later, my front light switched off. It was a terrifying moment, when it went completely dark. I reacted quickly to get my other light swiched on. While I still had the back-up light along with another 5000mah charge, I could have swapped my powerbank at Loudeac and avoided the whole thing. (The powerbank wasn't used at all, and was procured only for PBP).
Refreshed from the sleep, the rolling terrain wasn't tough, as we crossed one hill after another. The lead up to the control was rather long from the entry. I carefully negotiated the gravel road and made it to the parking lot. Raghu was loitering at the open-air bar. I reached a few minutes before midnight.
Hungry as a hog, I grabbed some food a sandwich and juice from the restaurant. Knowing that it wasn't sufficient food, I went to the full-service restaurant and wanted to get some carrot soup. The old-lady at the counter was getting training leading to a pile up, and it took nearly 25 minutes for the 10-odd people to be serviced. Conscious about the lost time, I quickly packed up and exited the control. Raghu was still around with a glass of beer on his hand. Bid good-bye to him and started.
Brest, here I come (609 kms)
We were still in country roads, and I was feeling drowsy. As we joined the rural highway, there was a camper serving coffee to the riders. I was only hoping for a small shot of coffee. What I got was almost three full-doses. More than enough to trigger acidity in the stomach, and enough to keep awake for the next night too.
The mid-way point, Brest is a 609 kms. I had a mental target of 36 hours for this distance. But the the next magical number was 554 kms. That's the point at which a long-downhill stretch started. At 20-kms, it was rather long, and would provide good rest to the tackle the next stretch to Brest. This did come up in an earlier conversation with Tim, the British cyclist I met at Istanbul Restaurant in Trappes. I keep looking for the climb, but it never came. It was probably 3-4% gradient, and I realized when the down-hill started. It was a great refresher while the coffee kept me awake, and the cold didn't bother so much.
Riding into Brest, the landscape turned urban again. There wasn’t much traffic in the pre-dawn hours. There were a couple of stiff climbs that kept the legs working. It was a long and unending ride to the control after reaching Brest city, and I finally reached at 6:25am, a few minutes before sun-rise. There were so many familiar faces. Akash greeted me as I entered, and I quickly enquired about the control.
The lubrication on the chain was still running smooth, but I topped it up at the bike service. Still too early for food, I exited the control quickly after stamping the brevet card.
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| Returning from Brest |
Back to Carhaix (593 kms)
Sun coming up over the ocean was a pleasant sight. I stopped to get a couple of pictures. As I exited Brest, there was a large park. As I stopped to use the loo, several of the BR riders passed. With the powerbank fiasco in mind, I wanted to reach Loudeac before sunset (930pm). On my plan, I wanted to ride this stretch on feel, but the lights' situation gave me an artificial target to keep it up. Nakul was passing by after five hours of refreshing sleep. A quick word from him on the lighting scenario, he thought it was easy to make it to Loudeac by sunset.
All I could say is royal treatment that Swamy and Prasad got. This was a family tent, and it was only short of banana leaves, as the duo thanked the old lady for the sumptuous breakfast and left. I took a quick look at what was on offer, and got a spread of juice, cakes and croissants. They also had setup pool chairs underneath a tent. "Of course", was the reply when I queried if I can take a quick nap. With the caffeine draining off, the sleep was effective. It must have been just over 45 minutes.
Thanking the oldlady for the breakfast and getting a post-card signed, I started towards Loudeac. The towns had a charming feeling, and weather was still cool.
Another interruption, and this time, it was the second secret control at Playben. This was a relief and I didn’t have to worry about secret controls for the rest of the ride The rolling terrain kept a check on the pace, and I reached Carhaix at 1:00pm. That was 43 hours and about 3.5 hours ahead of schedule.
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| Pizza & Eclair forLunch |
Carhaix to Loudeac (782 kms)
The drill at Carhaix was well-known having passed it only the previous night. And the restaurant queues seemed to grow longer. We gave it a miss and started towards Loudeac.
Few minutes later I stopped ahead of a support car, and the mother was still waiting for his son. She offered me a watermelon slice, that was heaven-send with the afternoon heat picking up. I stopped at a boulangerie and settled on a pizza and an éclair <pic>. The girl at the counter kept mentioning that it was double serving. It was tough to finish, but I needed the calories.
Rolling terrain was tough to ride in the afternoon heat. And the double layering was making me sweat twice. Only the beautiful countryside kept me motivated as I went past one hill after the another. Luckily this time, the downhills seemed to be longer than the uphills. I was feeling slight pain on the left knee. This was surprising as I was expecting pain on the hips and not on the knees. Earlier discussions with Murali didn't yield good results. He suggested moving the cleats a bit of the outside. I wasn't confident of carrying out, and to top that, there was a 50% chance of me doing it wrong. I went to the bike service and reduced the saddle height by 3mm. (Mechanics refer to it as point 3mm quite funnily)
I reached Loudeac at 7:45pm. (Fifty hours odd and three hours ahead of schedule). Drop-bag point was familiar and no time wasted. Plus, the powerbank scenario is taken care of. They had setup a tent for changing this time. I didn't more food supplies this time. I switched over to a larger and heavier 20000mah powerbank considering the two nights ahead. The shower was refreshing.
It was 9:15pm when I was about to start. Knowing that food will be hard to find this late in the evening, we decided to have a fill at the restaurant before heading out. Galin Chetta joined us. Fifteen minutes in the food counter, and I had some pasta and chicken on the plate, topped up with coke. The food was pretty bland, and that's where the coke came in. We set-off at 10pm finishing our meal.
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| Community volunteers on the course |
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| Riders getting refreshed at a street-side food stall |
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| Community volunteers on the course |
The unwilling passenger -- Tinteniac (870 kms)
As I was about to leave, Akash joined me. The weather was cool, and there was a gentle tailwind. But Akash was drowsy, and wanted to sleep. I wanted to roll on.The next stop was for coffee shots. Both of us got one and Akash was pretty sure he spotted Grinny. The three of us tried to make a paceline with Grinny taking the lead. We made some good speed. But the paceline in the night was a bit dangerous. Next we stopped at a community tent, and Galin joined us here. We had some snacks to keep us going. Akash was still drowsy, and I relented. We tried find a place to crash quickly and there weren't any. We spent about five minutes looking for a place, while, Galin went into a grocery store to pick up some coke. When nothing worked out, we started moving. The tailwinds helped us move quickly and the cool weather keeping the heart rate low. Soon we reached Quediac, which was a Food and Services only control point. I went to the Dorm counter and figured that it was going to be a half-hour wait for the dorm. I returned the dorm ticket I had purchased. By this time, Akash had picked up some food to eat.
Not wanting to spend further time, I headed towards Tinteniac, and reached at 3:20am. Caffeine wore out fast, and this being the third night, I wanted to catch some good sleep in a cozy bed. I quickly got my brevet card stamped and headed to the dorm counter. There was a 15-minute wait. Not wanting to wait in line, I found a spot in the tent towards the open field. I was so tired that I didn't care about the cold. I crashed on the tummy down. The first five minutes was cold. I woked up an hour and a half later.
When I woke up, I didn’t have any clue as to how I got here. Some good samaritan had thrown a space blanket over me and that kept me warm. I saw Mohan Sir being around and enquired to him about Akash. He hadn't seen him.
The night was so cold that it was difficult to start. I went looking for my bike, and I couldn’t find mine. When I arrived at Tinteniac, there were hardly 50 bikes, and the parking lot was filled with twice as much now. Luckily I spotted my bike on the first row, and started after topping up the water bottles.
With thirty hours remaining for the 352 kms, the confidence began to grow. By this time, I knew the ride was secured and it was a formality to complete the next 350 kms. I started for Fougeres at 5 am.
Teething troubles with the knee - Fougeres (928 kms)
Occasionally I would hear a voice "The Bangalore guy" from behind. This was from an American lady. Most of the RUSA guys were riding on a peloton formation. I would get on the peloton for sometime, and drop-off a few minutes later, not being able to keep up. Over time, I became comfortable with group-riding and holding onto someone's wheel. There were few groups that were regular. One was a small paceline led by an Hungarian rider: they always kept up a good pace.
As I started approaching Fougeres, the pain on the knee began to increase. Rohit Chandrasekhar was passing by. A quick word, and he advised taking Ibuprofen tablets. Luckily, I had these tablets, procured by Dhananjaya sir (Dan) earlier. It was just a mere coincidence that Dan would pass me within an hour. We both had a chat and our own twist about the tablets.
I reached Fougeres at 8:50pm (928 kms done in 63 hours, and 290 in 27 more to go). After getting the brevet card stamped, I headed straight to the restaurant looking for ice. The restaurant volunteer directed me to the nursing station, and the nurse redirected me to the doctor.
Fougeres had the medical center and restaurant far away from the stamping/parking area. For this, I need to exit the control and go the medical centre. While the doctor could understand my English very well, he wasn't comfortable communicating it. He used Google Translate (zindabad) to explain the condition. I had fluid accumulation in the knees because of excessive friction, and inflammation needs to be brought under control. He gave a good massage to the kneecap with Ibuprofen ointment and advised me to take one tablet every four hours. I already started the dosing a couple of hours earlier.
The icing on the cake was that he passed on a word to the dorm warden to ensure that I sleep a couple of hours before I head out. The dorm warden waived the charges when I offered to pay. Everywhere else, I had to wait in a queue. And here, there was an empty dorm of about 40 beds, and I was the second person to enter the dorm. I crashed straight away to be woken up an hour and a quarter later.
Celebration at Villaines-la-Juhel (1018 kms)
Having lost a bit of time with the medical center visit, I need to get my focus back and cover the remaining distance. I would bump into Mohan a couple of times.
The first time, when I stopped to pick up Ibuprofen ointment, and the second was when I stopped for lunch. This was a restaurant with expanded service for the cyclists. I picked up a ham sandwich and a large serving of carrot soup. I topped up the sandwich with carrot soup to soften it. Mohan was frowning at what I was doing. I explained to Mohan that the moisture will soften the hard bread for easy consumption.
A few minutes later Grinny stopped by. She was suffering from cramps and wanted salt. I said, "Relax. I am getting the salt.". She was in her own impatient world and was quick to pop up a lump of salt as I opened my canister. The right way to take salt is mix it with water, and wait for a few minutes to allow it to reach the muscles. Sudden changes in pH or salinity on the sensory parts (tongue) would provoke a reaction from the body.
Kilometers flew by, as I kept pedaling cautiously, not to sprain the ankle. I reached Villaines just before 6pm. A large gathering of people had assembled to welcome the riders. It was literally a hero's welcome, with the crowd thundering and cheering on the oncoming riders. The accomplishment of riding the distance was beginning to feel.
1018kms in 72.5 hours and. 200 kms to go in 18 hours.
The midnight fiasco at Mortagne-au-Perche (1099 kms)
The experience at Tinteniac taught me well. I chose a parking spot carefully so it will be easier to pick up. Brevet card stamping was quick, and I got on my way.
The evening was still warm and I wanted to get some food before the shops wind down for the night. I had already located an Indian restaurant at 1055 km, but there wasn't enough time for a sit-down meal. Near the same place in Alencon, was a kabab shop, that no-one could miss. Bang on the centre of a Y-junction.
It was good to see Akash having his dinner along with another rider Siva from Vizag. There was a fair bit of crowd, and the shop-owner took some time to fill the order. In the meantime, I hydrated myself well with juice and water. While I couldn't stomach the bread, the chicken was easy to eat. Akash had hit the bed at Tinteniac.
About ten kilometers later, I realized that I lad left my sipper at the restaurant. This being the last night, and expecting to finish before the sun goes up, I shrugged it off and continued.
I caught a small paceline of German riders, and kept up good pace. My turn came up front and it went on and on. Having run out of steam, I was asking the riders from behind to take over. A few minutes after I had run out of all energy, one of the riders took the front, and showed the correct signal for rotation. I had the wrong signal all the way.
There was a steep climb up the control at Mortagne and the knee seemed to do okay. Lots of riders were sleeping in the restaurant, and I wanted to catch a quick shuteye too. I was thirsty and headed up to the bar and asked for water pointing to the beer tap. After a bit of deliberation took the beer for hydration. A lady nearby was laughing all the way. Turned out she was an interpreter, and she helped me get a bottle of water. Crashed next to a group of riders for twenty minutes before I got going.
1099 kms in 78.5 hours. 120 kms to go in 11.5 hours.
Dilemma at Dreux (1177 kms)
The twenty minute sleep seemed to charge the battery in me to about 25%. Reluctantly, I pushed on. It wasn't the ideal place to sleep anyway.
Flat terrain, cool weather and a gentle breeze, maybe tailwinds, made the effort easier. I kept a steady pace, and the terrain was open fields. The star-lit sky was brilliant. A couple of hours later, I stopped at a pub in the middle of nowhere at a pub before Senonches. They had a laid out a mattress for the riders. I setup the alarm for 45 minutes and crashed on it. When the alarm went off, I was still tired. Hung around for another twenty minutes, and left quickly thanking the bartender. They were quite busy with other riders/customers.
It took some time for the legs to warm up again. There was a particular stretch of road (twenty kms before Dreux) that was so terrible, that it felt like we were climbing up a hill. It lasted for about two kms and more than ten minutes.
As the day was dawning, I was getting drowsy and my sleep uncontrollable. Being pre-dawn hours, it was still very cold. I stopped my bike, and crashed on the grass without bothering about the cold. I called up home for a twenty minute alarm and woke up one minute before the alarm. With just 8kms to go for Dreux.
I reached Dreux at 6:50. 1177 kms in 85.5 hours and 4.5 hours left before the control for the next 42 kms.
With the brevet card stamped, my mind went blank. I stood outside the control for five minutes not knowing where to go. Given a choice, I would have ridden towards Brest. It all began to sink in that the ride is ending.
The Grand Finale to Rambouillet
With the sunlight coming up, the forests of Rambouillet appeared very familiar. There wasn't any rush, as I watched the fellow riders, cheering them as we passed each other.
As I reached the gates of Rambouillet, my chain slipped once again (that's the third time on the ride). After getting it back on, I started towards the finish line, almost with no rush. The DJ was announcing each rider by name and country. It was a great feeling to hear mine.
Parked the bike safely, and got down to the stamping. "Here we have all of them" said the lady, "And here is your medal and your brevet card.".
That was a surprise to me. We return the brevet cards to the organizing team at BR, and this was such a great memento to have.
Tears rolled down my eyes, when it all began to sink in. Four days of riding with less than five hours of sleep. Some unexplainable joy within.
PBP is an experience. It can't be explained. One needs to live through it.
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| Celebrating with the Paris-Brest dessert |
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| At the finish line |
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| PBP 2023 Medal |
Heartiest congrulations to the BR rider and Mohan Subramanyam. Special mention to Dhananjaya for the medcines he got from India. And thanks to my wife and daughter who have been putting up weekend long rides, more than anything.
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| Postcards to be mailed out the volunteers |
